Yes, you can drink the water.

This is a turn-up for suspicious British tourists throughout the Mediterranean. Granada officially has the best tap water in Europe, and by extension - probably - the world. Story here, but as it's in Spanish, the sort of people who won't drink the water in Spain won't read it.

Edinburgh has nothing on this.

We're back in Juviles from Friday, and joy of joys, our visit coincides with the fifth annual village Semana Cultural, or cultural week. Events include a bookmark-making workshop, a lecture on back pain and a "tasting" of beer with fried eggs and bacon. There's also something called a "frozen bubble competition", and a free breakfast featuring 80 proof anis spirit and "typical" sweets. You know that episode of Father Ted when Fun Land comes to Craggy Island......

Interesting one; there's a verbena (outdoor party) at 11pm on Friday, and the listing says it's "amenizada por el grupo Fuente Nueva". I read this as "amenazada" or "menaced by", but then looked it up in the dictionary: "amenazar" does indeed mean to "to menace", whereas "amenizar" (with an "i") means "to enliven". I'm so glad I clarified that. Having witnessed Fuente Nueva's performances before, I expect I'd have been none the wiser.

Anyway, I'll be taking pictures during this orgy of cultural treasures and will post some of them here in ten days or so. Meanwhile, if you want us between the 1st and 9th August, call my Spanish number: (+34) 697914136.

Sustainable Spain

I just found out about the Alpujarra Sostenible pressure group and blog, which you can visit here. (It's mostly in Spanish but there is some English copy too.) The organisation aims to protect the environment in the Alpujarra, one of the most important areas of biodiversity in Europe. Although the region remains breathtakingly beautiful to the eye of the visitor, it's clearly not beyond the threat of encroaching development. Road building in particular is unnecessarily brutal in some parts, and there's the constant threat of invernaderos (plastic greenhouses) and urbanizaciones, fortunately all at lower altitudes than Juviles. One benefit of the real estate depression could be less pressure on beautiful areas like ours for new homes - there's currently a million empty apartments in Spain.

The power of now

When I check the visitor stats for this blog, I find that on average, about eight people look at it each day. That includes me and, most days, Annie. Two days ago, though, I mentioned Radovan Karadzic (while he was on the front pages of the broadsheets) and got 82 visitors (Tuesday) and 53 (yesterday). Clearly Bosnian Serb war criminals are a bigger draw than stray dogs and rabbit stew. Sadly though, Karadzic has nothing to do with Juviles so he won't be back on a regular basis. And none of these 135 new visitors is interested in booking our house, or even clicking on my ads, so he's not contributing to our wealth. Perhaps we should take up alternative medicine; it clearly earned Karadzic a few dinar.

The wine that doesn't travel....

Today The Guardian ran a story on what to do with the kind of holiday booze that tastes great in its country of origin, but when you bring a bottle home in an attempt to recreate the exotic atmosphere of your trip, it just makes you feel sick and ends up taking up space at the back of a cupboard for years. Personally I've never suffered from this problem, and any bottle of cachaca, Thai whisky or slivovitz that's made it home with us has been consumed with relative enthusiasm and speed. (There was some caraway aqvavit that outstayed its welcome once, but that came from Ikea in Hillington so I'm not sure it qualifies.) Anyway, the story reminded me of this recipe for pigeon cooked with patxaran, so here it is.

Incidentally patxaran (that's the Basque spelling; it's pacharan in Spanish) is a digestif made by macerating sloes in anis - it's not unlike sloe gin. Served over plenty of ice, it tastes like cough medicine and soothes an over-worked tummy a treat. I should have had some to alleviate the food-poisoning I contracted in Chester last weekend, but that's another story.

Ingredients: 4 whole pigeons or 12 pigeon breasts, 2 onions, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 ripe tomatoes, skinned, ½l meat stock or water, ¼l patxarán. Oil, salt & pepper
Preparation: Heat the oil in a casserole and sauté the onion until transparent. Brown the pigeons or breasts slightly with the onion, add the garlic cloves, flambé with the patxarán, crush and add the tomatoes and add the meat stock or water. Cover and simmer gently for around 20 minutes for whole birds (ten for breasts) then check to see if they're done to your liking. Check seasoning and serve with a green salad and some kind of potatoes, maybe mashed.

Comedy priest found alive

We've had enough animals here for the time being, so today I'd like to celebrate the discovery of Father Ted actor Dermot Morgan(left) near Belgrade. He was a fine comedian and reports of his death saddened us all, so the revelation that he's been been alive and practising alternative medicine in the Serbian capital all these years is great news.

Strangely enough, he reminds me just a bit of that Radovan Karadzic, the war crimes fellow.

Arbubilla link

I'm very fond of the hoopoe. Known as arbubilla in Spanish and upupa epops in scientific Latin, all its names seem to be onomatopoeic renditions of its call. They're not uncommon around Juviles and we saw a pair the other week when we were driving nearby. This is not my photograph, sadly; it's from Iberia Nature. The site currently has a lovely bit of writing about hoopoes in Barcelona by Lucy Brzoska here.

...and here's an old one.

Not the most flattering shot of the old girl, but this is Luna, the most sweet-natured dog in the village. She won't come in the house (unlike the cats), or indeed in anyone else's home as far as we know, so someone must have clearly defined her place to be the street, one way or another, when she was a pup. Instead she will sometimes hang around outside our door, sort of guarding us, we like to think. She certainly seems pleased to see us when we're in Juviles - although her rounds take her to various positions around the village depending on the weather and the action, and she's no doubt pleased to see everyone she bumps into. She's a gentle, quiet dog and I've never known her to bark. Whereas every other dog in the village enjoys a damn good shout on a regular basis.

We have a new friend.

This fellow belongs to Tino, the owner of the eponymous bar at the end of Calle Altillo (i.e. about four doors away). And in his tiny mind, he (the cat, that is, not Tino) believes that our terrace belongs to him. Here he is simultaneously absorbing the heat from the rock on our roof and enjoying the shade. He's one of three we saw quite a lot of the other week, his siblings being a very fetching dark tortoiseshell and a striking all-black with a shock of white on the end of the tail. This one is by far the friendliest/cheekiest. Their mum sensibly confines herself to the bar, where she avails herself of the constant flow of tapas.

Juviles joins information superhighway

We don't have ADSL at the house but should you stay there, you can check your e-mail for free at the Guadalinfo facility in the village "library", just two minutes walk away. Guadalinfo is an initiative by the Junta which aims to provide free internet access to every community in Andalucia with 10,000 people or fewer, so Juviles (currently listed as 202 souls) certainly qualifies. The library has about six terminals and when I used it earlier this month, there was only me and the Czech family from the Dragon Verde in there. The kit is brand new and the connection is fast. It's open to the public Mon-Thur 15.30-19.30 but it seems to be OK to wander in at other times if the door's open (I was there Friday about 1pm).

...and home.

Yep, we got back yesterday so don't call the Spanish number. It was very, very hot. Pictures shortly.